KELSEYVILLE >> Logan Barrick or Kyle Ellis? Kyle Ellis or Logan Barrick? It was a ping-pong match played out over the course of the entire 2016-17 sports season at Kelseyville High School where the two standout athletes experienced a memorable senior year.
There was Barrick, the three-sport standout (football, basketball and baseball), and Ellis, the two-sport star (basketball and baseball) who earned co-MVP awards on two All-League teams. Barrick earned All-League recognition in all three sports, including co-MVP honors along with Ellis on the All-League baseball team.
Kelseyville honored both — rather than choose between them — when selecting the school’s top male athlete for 2016-17. Their baseball coach, Lou Poloni, nominated both for league MVP honors rather than choose between them.
Both were solid students at Kelseyville, Both had the respect of their own coaches as well as other coaches in the county and around the North Central League I. Both are set to continue their baseball careers in college — Barrick at Sierra College in Rocklin and Ellis at Santa Rosa Junior College.
So try picking one of these guys for Lake County Record-Bee Athlete of the Year honors … Barrick the three-sport jack-of-all-trades or Ellis the two-time league MVP and reigning Athlete of the Year following a banner 2015-16 junior season.
And the winner is … both of them. How could you decide otherwise?
For the first time in the history of the boys Athlete of the Year award, there is a can’t-choose-between-’em bonafide tie. Ellis and Barrick will share top honors, which also makes Ellis the first back-to-back winner of the boys award in its 30-year history.
That both athletes were as unselfish as they were talented on the gridiron, basketball court and diamond is a big reason why Kelseyville won undisputed league championships in basketball and baseball and made a deep run in the Division V football playoffs (reaching the semifinals after two straight playoff wins).
Barrick and Ellis shared the same coaches in basketball (Scott Conrad) and baseball (Lou Poloni). What do they think of their irreplaceable seniors, now graduated and moving on to the next level of their careers?
“Basketball is probably Logan’s third sport, so that speaks to the kind of athlete he is,” Conrad said. “I was hoping Logan would be recognized a little more than an honorable mention, but it was an incredibly talented league this year, there were a lot of good players. He had great leadership skills and gave every ounce of everything he had, even in our last two games, which were both losses. He outsmarted a lot of opponents.”
Ellis, a four-year varsity starter for Conrad, helped transform a 20-loss program (the year before he arrived on the high school scene) into a 22-win, league championship team before he graduated.
“A fantastic leader, very unselfish,” Conrad said. “He finished (his career) with just under 1,500 points, but he could have scored a lot more if he was worried about that. He wasn’t. He always put team success first … always.
“I’m trying to figure out what it’s going to be like without coaching Kyle,” Conrad added.
Poloni said you couldn’t find two more different players personality-wise than the ultra-intense and extremely superstitious Barrick and the more laid-back but every bit as competitive Ellis. Even so, they made it work on the field.
“They would play catch with each other every day and argue with each other … it was hilarious,” Poloni said. “I would just laugh.”
Destined to be Kelseyville’s long-term catcher when he moved up to the varsity ranks his sophomore season, Barrick’s job title changed not soon after the 6-foot-3, 210-pound right-hander made the most of a handful of opportunities on the mound.
“He went from being a guy who would throw every once and a while to our No. 2 guy last season and then the No. 1 guy this season,” Poloni said.
Ellis, groomed as the Knights’ shortstop from the moment he moved up to the varsity late in his freshman year, turned in a dominant performance in 2017.
“Kyle really stepped it up and became a really good defensive player (this year). We knew he could hit and he did even better this season than last. That’s not bad for someone who almost didn’t play baseball (after his sophomore year).”
Logan Barrick
Barrick, 18, has always been a capable hitter, but it wasn’t until a scrimmage against Clear Lake before the start of his sophomore season, in 2015, that he began to open up a few eyes in regard to what he could do on the mound.
“I struck out some of their (Clear Lake’s) best hitters and they were really good that year,” Barrick said of the Cardinals, who won their first 26 games en route to a 26-1 season in 2015. “Six up and six down,” Barrick said of his first taste of pitching at the varsity level.
A catcher more of his young life, Barrick’s career was about to skyrocket to prominence. He went 5-4 on the mound during his sophomore season before breaking through in 2016. Barrick went 12-2, tying a county record for most wins in a single season, and along with fellow pitcher Noah Lyndall helped the Knights roll out a 20-3 record, including 14-0 in league play.
“I always considered myself a hitter first, so going 12-2 in my junior year was a real eye opener,” Barrick said. “Even then I didn’t consider myself a pitcher until the end of my junior year. Before that baseball was always hit, hit, hit to me.”
And he was just getting started. As amazing as that 12-2 record was in 2016, Barrick — and the Knights — upped their game in 2017 despite some key losses to graduation.
“We lost our entire outfield, probably the best defensive outfield I’ve every played with, we lost Noah who went 8-1, and we lost Simbhava (Baird, the Knights’ sweet swinging first baseman). I wasn’t sure how we were going to replace all those guys.”
They did it with solid play from their veterans, including Ellis, Jonah Lewis, Randy Pfann and Adrian Villalobos, and contributions from varsity rookies such as Jason Gentle, Jacob Beck and Junior Gonzalez.
Even with his new-found fame on the pitching rubber, Barrick never lost his hitting touch. However, it did take him a few games to get his bat going in 2017.
“I went 3-for-4 against El Molino in my first game and then didn’t get a hit for the next four games. I was like 0-for-13.”
Teams were still afraid to pitch to him despite his early struggles and when he received an intentional walk near the end of his mini-slump, he said it gave him confidence. Barrick ended up batting .451 with a team-leading 39 RBIs.
His incredible record of 13-0 in 14 starts is one that might stand for quite some time. The funny thing is his best start of the year resulted in his only no-decision as the Knights tied McKinleyville 1-1 in eight innings. Barrick worked the first seven innings, allowing an unearned run on three hits while striking out 14.
“Wins are a fun stat for me because it’s a team win. If your teammates don’t play well behind you, you don’t win. If they don’t support you at the plate, you don’t win. I’m happy to have the (single-season) record, but when you start a season you never know how many starts you’re going to get. There are a lot of factors.”
As the season played out and as luck would have it, Barrick wasn’t on the mound when Kelseyville lost 4-0 to eventual Division IV section winner St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda in the semifinal round of the playoffs.. Had the Knights won that game and made it to the finals, Barrick would have been on the mound for start No. 15 in the Division IV championship game.
Barrick said he has no regrets about how events unfolded. His friend, Lewis, started against St. Joseph Notre Dame and was a big factor in the Knights’ successful season, both on the mound and at the plate. In fact, Barrick said Kelseyville’s accomplishments were possible only because every player on the roster did the job when called upon.
“Adrian is the hardest worker I’ve ever seen and Kyle really stepped it up this season,” Barrick said of two of his teammates.
Was he surprised by the amount of success the Knights (24-2-1) had in 2017 despite all the losses to graduation?
Yes and no.
“I remember Lou told us that if went 1-8 during our preseason it would be no big deal because we had such a tough schedule. He said he would be happy with .500. But I remember thinking there’s no way in hell I’m losing three games (starts) in the preseason.”
An honorable mention for Kelseyville’s league-winning basketball team, Barrick also started at quarterback for a Knights football team that had its best season in years, finishing 9-4 and reaching the Division V semifinals. He passed for 957 yards and 14 touchdowns and rushed for another three scores. He also started on defense for Kelseyville at safety, outside linebacker and defensive end.
In fact, his biggest thrill of his senior season didn’t come in baseball. It was Kelseyville’s come-from-behind 14-12 victory at Middletown in the quarterfinal round of the football playoffs.
“We lost to them in league but we knew we could make adjustments to fix the things that we needed to fix,” Barrick said. “We knew we had to stop the toss and there was no way they were going to beat us with that toss (in the playoffs).”
Barrick, playing at defensive end in that game, was a large reason why. He also forced a key fumble.
His worst moment during his senior year also came in football.
“Losing to Lower Lake,” he said. “We sat there ready for them to pass the ball and (Nick) Sani (Lower Lake running back) went up the middle on us all night long.”
Whether it was football, basketball or baseball, Barrick said he the benefit of good coaching in all three sports – from Erick Larsen (football), Conrad (basketball) and Poloni (baseball).
“They’re all great guys,” Barrick said.
The son of John and Melanie Barrick, Logan also had a little brother, 10-year-old Brock, who is quite the athlete.
While he’ll play baseball as long as there is a spot for him, Barrick plans to become a history teacher one day and wouldn’t mind applying his trade back at Kelseyville High School.
Kyle Ellis
If you had told Ellis four years ago that he would be moving on to college as a baseball and not a basketball player he probably would have laughed at you.
“It was the toughest decision I’ve had to make so far in my life,” Ellis said of accepting an offer to play baseball at Santa Rosa Junior College, one of the top community college programs in the state. “I love them both,” he said of basketball and baseball.
A former Kelseyville alum and SRJC player, Ray Silva, urged Ellis to refine his plentiful baseball skills at SRJC where several other Kelseyville players have flourished, including former Athlete of the Year Brian Hanson. “I’ve known Ray my whole life.”
While he received some interest from collegiate basketball teams, Ellis said baseball feels like the better fit at this point in his career.
“I had so much fun playing it,” he said of his high school experience, which culminated with back-to-back undefeated league championships.
Ellis plans to pursue baseball as long as possible. When his sports career is over, he would like to become a game warden because he enjoys spending time in the outdoors.
“I love the outdoors,” Ellis said. “I love to fish and hunt, especially deer and duck hunting.”
Ellis’ hunting during the high school season was of a different sort. The Knights stalked league championships his senior year as the basketball and baseball teams combined for a 27-1 record in league play.
Familiarity as much as talent led to an incredible sports season for Kelseyville’s boys during 2016-17.
“Both the basketball and baseball teams gave maximum effort,” Ellis said. “We’ve known each other for a while. The core guys had been together for a long time. We’re great friends.”
Consistent and quality coaching played a vital part, too.
“He’s great,” Ellis said of Poloni, “and the same for Conrad. Both are similar. They love the game and what they’re doing, both of them. If you don’t, there’s no point being out there.”
As far as his senior season goes, Ellis marked off the final things on his to-do list in both basketball and baseball. For starters, his dream of delivering Kelseyville a league championship in basketball finally came to fruition despite an early-season league loss at Cloverdale, the team the Knights needed to beat to get over that hump in the league standings.
“I’ve been chasing it for four years,” Ellis said of a league title in basketball. “The things that we did wrong when we lost in Cloverdale were easy to fix. We corrected them and beat them at Kelseyville. That was huge.”
Ellis also set a goal of seeing the Knights host sectional playoff games in both basketball and baseball before he graduated. The Knights obliged, earning a first-round home game against Healdsburg in basketball and three home games in baseball against Lick-Wilmdering, Del Norte and St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda. They also hosted a first-round baseball game in 2016.
Ellis almost didn’t play baseball his junior season. It came down to a coin flip whether he would or wouldn’t. Thankfully for Poloni and the Knights, the coin landed the right way on two separate flips. Following a successful junior year, Ellis shifted into an even higher gear his senior season. As the No. 2 hitter in the Knights’ batting order, he posted numbers that were nothing short of incredible. He led the team in batting average (.481), hits (39), runs (32), doubles (11), triples (3), on-base percentage (.584), slugging average (.728) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.312), also known as OPS. He was even third in RBIs with 22.
“No coin flips this time,” Ellis said. “I worked hard to get ready.”
Ellis, who turns 19 next month, is the son of Kevin and Connie Ellis. He has a younger sister, Kalee, 14, and a younger brother, Braden, 3.
Playing college ball in nearby Santa Rosa will allow his parents and grandpa Steve to take in plenty of his games next season when he suits up for the Bearcubs. He’s not sure which position he’ll playing, most likely shortstop or third base.
“I’ve been playing a lot of third base in summer ball (for a Santa Rosa Connie Mack team),” Ellis said.
He starts school at SRJC on Aug. 21, which poses a bit of a problem. “Deer season opens Aug. 12.”
School and sports are likely to win out when push comes to shove.
“I love sports, I love everything about them,” he said.
